Amines

Naming

Naming amines is similar to naming simple alkanes. The longest chain is the chain labelled with the amine, and the shortest chains are added in front in alphabetical order with the annotation N – alkyl.

Properties

Solubility

Primary and secondary amines are soluble in water, while tertiary amines are not. This is due to the fact the these do not have any Hydrogen and therefore no Hydrogen Bonding is possible.

Basicity

Tertiary amines are more basic then primary amines. In total contrast to carboxylic acids an electron withdrawing group will reduce the basicity while an electron donating group will increase the basicity

Preparation

Halogenoalkanes

The reaction with halogenoalkanes is uncontrollable since the product are even more reactive than the starting material